Aerosol valves



March 13, 1962 P. H. SAGARIN AEROSOL VALVES Filed Feb. 2, 1959 i VX. l

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. n 2325 li-l3 /l 22 l '1:' y f f "a I' fl INVENTOR. PHILIP H. SAGARIN3o BY ATTORNEY United States Patent Oiice i 3,024,949 Patented Mar. 13,1962 3,024,949 AEROSOL VALVES Philip H. Sagarin, Bridgeport, Conn.,assignor to Valve Corporation of America, Incorporated, Bridgeport,Connecticut Filed Feb. 2, 1959, Ser. No. 790,505 2 Claims. (Cl. 222-394)This invention relates to aerosol valves and more particularly to theassembly and mounting thereof, and is an improvement upon Patent2,772,820 of Dec, 4, 1956 of William R. ODonnell and assigned to thesame assignee as the present invention.

Primarily the present invention contemplates simplification andreduction of the number of parts involved in construction of an aerosolvalve.

Likewise the invention proposes utilization of the rigidity of apreformed mounting cup for the location and retention of the valvesealing disk.

A specific object of the invention is to provide a construction whereinthe valve sealing disk also functions as a sealing gasket.

Another object of the invention is to more conveniently obtain a finalclinching of the valve assembly.

Other objects, advantages and novel structural features of the inventionwill appear to persons skilled in the art to which it appertains as thedescription proceeds, both by direct recitation thereof and byimplication from the context.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, in which like numerals ofreference are used in both views to designate the same parts; K

FIGURE 1 is an axial sectional view of a valve assembly incorporatingthe present invention, showing the valve in its closed condition andshowing the assembly mounted in place in a container largely brokenaway; and

FIGURE 2 is a similar sectional view showing the valve in its open ordispensing position.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in said drawing,the reference numeral designates an aerosol container of any suitablematerial and shape adapted to be sealed and withstand applied ordeveloped internal pressure by the expandable propellant incorporatedwith the contents to be sprayed, or by preapplied gas pressure in thecontainer. The top opening of the container is closed by a permanentlyapplied cap 11 inserted therein in the nature of a stopper and curled,as at 12, at its protruding periphery into interengaging retention witha curled rim 13 bordering the container opening. In making the assembly,a suitable sealing compound may be included between the curls of the capand rim. The cap 11 is of general cup-shape with a cylindrical outerwall 14 and planar bottom wall 15, and has a re-entrant neck 16 coaxialwith the outer wall but of less height axially. For convenience ofdescription, orienting terms, such as top and bottom, are used inappropriate application to the position of parts as illustrated in thedrawing, but without restricting the invention to necessarily having tobe in the erect position shown. At the top of said neck 16 is across-wall 17 here shown as fiat and in a plane parallel to aforesaidplanar bottom wall 15. Cap or cup 11 may appropriately be stamped ordrawn from sheet aluminum of adequate strength to constitute mountingfor the valve assembly and to withstand deformation in use,

The valve assembly includes a hollow cylindrical member which will beherein referred to as valve-tail 18 and which is of rigid charactermade, for instance, of brass, steel or other material. The upper endportion 19 of this valve-tail 18 is of upwardly outwardly flaring bellformation providing a circular upper terminal rim. The

bottom end of valve-tail 18 has an irl-turned ange 20 which leaves ahole 20 therethrough for admission of fluid from the container into thesaid valve-tail.

Said upper rim of bell 19 of the valve-tail 18 has a diameter agreeableto the internal diameter of cup neck 16 and is inserted therein withsaid rim proximate to the cylindrical neck wall. The valve-tail 18 isaccordingly located coaxially with the cup and cup neck, and havinggreater length than said cup neck, depends a considerable distance belowthe bottom wall 15 of the cup. Within said neck 16 of the cap andcompressed between the upper rim of said bell 19 of the valve-tail andthe top cross-wall 17 of the cup neck 16, is valve-gasket 21 of suitablematerial, of which buna and neoprene are eX- amples. Permanent retentionof the bell or are of the valve-tail is obtained by pinching, as at 22,the wall of neck 16 under the outer peripheral rim of the bell or flare.By virtue of the neck 1'6 being re-entrant in the cup, this pinch isvery conveniently made by a suitable tool (not shown) that can beintroduced in the open mouth of the cup.

Extending coaxially within and projecting upwardly from said valve-tail18 is a hollow or tubular valve-stem 23. Within the body of thevalve-tail the said valve-stem has a peripheral bulge 24 which will actas a stop to limit upward movement of the valve-stem by engagement withthe under face of valve-gasket 21. Said valvestem is open only at itsupper end and closed at its lower end. The valve-stem 23 has a lateralport 25 communieating from the exterior to the hollow interior of saidvalve-stem, said port being at a part of the valve-stem above the bulge24 and at a location such that by sliding the valve-stem the port may bebrought at one or upper position within the contines of the valve-gasket21 and in another or lower position below the said gasket. The gaskethugs the valve-stem and constitutes a seal against passage of fluid pastthe same between it and the valvestem. It may also be here noted thatthe same gasket also effects a seal at its margin by compression of therim of bell 19 thereagainst.

When the port 25 is within the confines of gasket 21, it is sealedthereby against passage of uid therethrough, thus utilizing the gasketfor a third function, but when the port is below the gasket it providespassage from the interior of the valve-tail 18 to the interior of thevalve-stem 23. The open upper end of said valve-stem communicates with apassageway 26 in an operating button 27 on the upper end of thevalve-stem, said button having an outlet orifice 23 in communicationwith said passageway so that contents from valve-tail 18 will dischargefrom the said orifice. When the valve-stem is at the upper end of itsstroke, which is its normal position, limited by engagement of bulge 24with the valvegasket 21, port 2S is located within the gasket betweenthe top and bottom planar faces thereof, which therefore seals the portand prevents ow of fluid from the valvetail to the interior of thevalve-stem and therefore no discharge takes place. In order to maintainthe valvestem in its upper or normal position, except when manuallydepressed, a spring 29 encircles the lower portion thereof and is undercompression by bearing at its upper end against bulge 24 and bearing atits lower end against flange 20 of the valve-tail. A dip tube 30 has itsupper end applied on the outside of the valvetail and goes to the bottomof the container as usual to supply uid to the valve-tail until thecontainer is substantially empty.

I claim:

1. An aerosol valve construction for dispensing fluid from a container,comprising in combination a closure cap for the container, having areentr'ant upwardly-extended neck provided with an apertured transversetop wall to accommodate a valve stern in the aperture thereo'f; a valvegasket in the form of a flat washer, seated in the neck against said topwall; a valve tail comprising a tubular, circular housing memberreceived in and depending from said reentrant neck, said member having aared bell and disposed in the neck and constituting a valve-gasketclamping means, said end presenting a sharp circular edge ofsubstantially the same diameter as the outer periphery of the gasket andconstituting the sole engagement of the valve tail with the Valvegasket, said clamping end being devoid of Hats of appreciable areawhereby it engages the gasket with virtually a thinfline, circularcontact and is partially embedded therein to elect `a tight sealtherewith; detent means on the reentrant neck, engaged with the saidbell end to retain the valve tail in the neck with the sharp circularedge engaged under pressure with the outer peripheral portion of thegasket; and a hollow valve stem disposed in the valve tail andprojecting through the gasket and top wall, said stem beinglongitudinally movable and having a valve member engageable with thegasket to control the passage of uid through the valve tail.

2. A valve construction as in claim 1, wherein the bell end curesoutward from the body of the valve tail to the said sharp circular edge.

References Cited in the le of this patentl UNITED STATES PATENTS2,721,010 Meshberg Oct. 18, 1955 2,772,820 ODonrlell Dec. 4, 19562,777,735 Green Jan. 15, 1957 V2,822,960 Lengel Feb. 11, 1958

